Clothes drier



Dec. 7, 1943. T, s, WATSON 2,336,428

CLOTHES DRIER Filed Dec. 11, 1940 3 Sheets-She et 1 ATTORNEYS Dec. 7, 1943.

T. s. WATSON CLOTHES DRIER Filed Dec. 11, 1940 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY;

Dec. 7, 1943. T. s. WATSON CLOTHES DRIER Filed Dec. ll, 1940 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. 710w! I a/E.

9 M4 "I M ATTORNEYS Patented Dec. 7, 1943 CLOTHES DRIER Thomas S. Watson, Milwaukee, Wis., assignor of one-half to Huebsch Manufacturing Company, Milwaukee, Wis., a. corporation of Wisconsin Application December 11, 1940, Serial No. 369,553

. 11' Claims.

The invention relates to clothes driers and more particularly to av drier of the hydraulicv pressure extractor type.

One of the main objects of the invention is to provide -a drier of the type above described with improved means for locking the cover which will resist the heavy pressures to which it is'subjected in practice and yet may be readily released without danger of jamming. More particularly, in the present invention the cover is 'firmly locked to the body of the container by a plurality of latches, and these latches are controlled by a reciprocatory member carried and movable relative to said cover and also in the preferred form acting as a supplemental cover to deflect water expressed from theclothes into a drain passage. A further object is to provide an arrangement of the type in which one cover will serve for a plurality of bags wherein the pressure fluid to act on each bag is controlled by a single valve which may be moved to an operating position for each one of the bags but which is prevented from being moved to an operating position except with that unit in which the coveris positioned over th bag.

The invention further consists in the several features hereinafter set forth and more particularly defined by claims at the conclusion hereof.

In the drawings: Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a clothes drier embodying the invention, the section being taken on the line of Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the drier apparatus,

' parts being broken away and parts being shown in section;

Fig. 3 is a view of parts shown in Fig'. 1 with the line 4-4 of Fig. 1; 1

Fig. 5 is a detailed sectional view taken on the line 55 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a detailed sectional view taken along the line 68 of Fig. 5.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 8 dessignates, in each instance, a metal walled container having a grooved rim 9 at its top and an opening ID in its bottom connected by a pipe. with a sourc of hydraulic fluid. The container is cylindrical with a conically curved bottom for strength, and preferably the depth of this casing or container should not exceed its diameter.-

A bag l2 of flexible material fits within the container, and its rim I3 is adapted to fit in the groove of the rim 9 and a mating groove I4 while draining off the first container, this valve formed in a clamping ring l5 secured to the rim 9 by a plurality of screws IS.

A cover I! is adapted to fit over the top ofeither container 8 and has its rim I8 abutting the ring l5 and locked thereto by locking mechanism hereinafter described. The cover is provided with a plurality of apertures I9 uniformly distributed over its top to allow water or waste liquid to pass freely from the upper portion of other container. Each container has an annular member 22 welded thereto and cooperating with the upper wall of the container proper to form a trough 23 to collect waste liquid draining off from the apertures IS in the cover l1, each trough having a drain conduit '24 leading therefrom.

Each of the pipes ll connect with a common valve housing 25 of adisc type so-called fourway rotary valve having three positions; to wit, a completely closed position, an on position for one of the containers while draining the other, and an on position for the other container being of well known construction and, therefore,

not shown in detail, said valve having a stem 26 to side over one container or the other it is counterweighted and hung from adavit-type standard 32 whose lower end has an end thrust hearing 33 in a foot 34 carried by the frame members 35 and alateral thrust bearing 36 mounted in a bearing housing'31 on the frame 20. A hollow counterweight 38 surrounds the upper straight portionof the standard 32 and is connected by metal straps 39 to a yoke 40 slidably mountedon said standard and to the end of a looped cable 4|, whose runs pass over guide sheaves 42 and,

on each side of the 'standardwhereby the cable hangs down from the top of the standard or derrick mast 32 as a loop in which a pulley is mounted, said pulley being connected with the cover I! by a post 45 anchored to the cover and I having the pulley block member 46 secured to its upper end. The counterweight 38 is suspended by the cable 4|, so that it is free to move up and down relative to the standard 32. The actual raising and lowering of the cover is accomplished by the operator through a lever 41 pivoted to the-standard at one end 48 and having a handle 49 projecting out to a position in front of the two containers'8, this lever being connected to the cover through locking control mechanism hereinafter described.

For locking the cover l1 in operative position over the top of either container I providea plurality. of one piece latches 50 which are notched to provide jaws engaging over the cover rim l8 and the casing rim 9 in the closed position of the cover to lock these parts together, said latches being pivotally mounted at on pin carrying bosses 52 secured to or formed integral with the rim l8 of the cover. The latches 50 beingpivotally supported at their upper ends are free to swing to a locking position under the action of gravity when the cover is in its closed position. Means are provided for holding said latches in a locked position and also for moving said latches to an unlocked position. This means includes a locking ring 53 carried at the lower flanged edge of a supplemental cover or splash deflector 54 which is provided with a tubular hub 55 slidably mounted and guided on the post 45. Each latch 50 has a fiat surface 56 with which the ring 53 engages in its locking position and-surfaces 51 and 58 tapering from said surface 56 towards the ends of the latch with the upper end provided with a laterally extending projection 59 engaged by the ring 53 on its upward movement to swing the latches 50 outwardly to a cover release position. The tapered surface 58 of any latch if it fails to swing inwardly may be engaged by the ring 53 to urge it to a cover holding position. Thus a downward movement of the ring 53 acts to move and hold the latches 50 in cover-locking position, and an upward movement thereof acts to release and hold said latches in a release position.

Control of the movement of the locking ring 53 is through a manually operable lever 60 which pin and slot connection GI with the sleeve or hub 55 and between this connection and the pivot pin 48, the lower end of the lever 50 is pivotally connected by a pin 62. Intermediate its ends the lever 60 has a pin and slot connection 63 with the pulley block 46. Actually the levers 41 and 60 are shown as having spaced sides to straddle certain of the parts. The above described arrangement permits the lever 60 to be moved relative to the cover I1 and its support including the post 45 so as to lock or unlock the latches 50 by the movement of the sleeve 55 through a slight swinging movement of the lever 41 relative to the post 45. In the release position of the ring 53 the lever 50 has been swung down so that it may be connected to move as a unit with the lever 41, in the raising or lowering of the entire cover structure, by means of a latch 64 pivotally mounted intermediate its ends on a pin.65 on the lever 41 and engageable with projections 65 on the lever 60. This latch is normally urged by a spring 61 to a position in which it will hook over the projections 66 when the levers 41 and B0 are moved together, said spring being operatively connected to'the lower end of the latch 64 by a rod 88 slidably mounted in guides 69 on the handie and having a bent outer end 10 for manual engagement to permit ready release of the latch 64 from the projections 66. The slots for the pin and slot connections BI and 53 allow acertain amount of lost'motion of the levers 41 and 6'] relative to the cover support.

With the levers 41 and 60 in the position shown in Fig. l the locking ring 53 has been lowered to latch locking position, and under these conditions hydraulic fluid may be introduced through its pipe l0 into the space between the container 8 and the bag 9, thus forcing the bag l2 previously charged with wet clothes upwardly toward the cover, so that the water in the clothes will be squeezed out of them and flow through the openings l9 into the space between the top of the cover downwardly into the trough 23.

I1 and the splash cover part 54 and from thence After this water extracting operation is finished and the water has been released or allowed to drain from the space between the bag l2 and the container 8, the operator pulls the lever 60 down into latched engagement with the lever 41. During this downward movement of the lever 60 there is a slight upward swinging movement of the lever 41 which causes the supplemental cover with its locking ring 53 to move upwardly, first free of the latch surfaces 56 and later engaging the projections to move the latches to a release position, and by this time the sleeve is in a position to engage the lower end of the pulley bushing 46 on the post 45, so that thereafter when both levers 41 and move together, the operator through the upward swinging movement of the lever 41- will raise the cover I1 clearof the top of one of the containers 8, so that by swinging the lever 41 in a horizontal plane the standard 32 may be rotated to bring the cover into position over the other container 8 whose bag structure has been charged during the time the charge in the first container was undergoing its extract ing operation, and the lever 41 is then swung downwardly to a cover closing position, and then on the release of the latch 64 the lever 60 is permitted to move to the upper full line position shown in Fig. 1 and the ring 53 consequently moved down to a latch locking position to permit the extracting operation to be carried out in this second container. Thus the same cover and its locking and control mechanism can be used for a plurality of containers without interfering with the operation of either since the un-.

covered container is being either emptied and charged while the extraction operation is going on in the covered container, but if with two containers and one cover mechanism the operator should accidentally turn on the hydraulic pressure fluid to the uncovered container, it might cause the bag to be emptied of its charge and also injury to the bag which is an expensive item in the equipment. In order to prevent'such a thing happening, means have been provided acting automatically or incidentally to the operation of the cover to prevent opening of the pressure supply to that container which is uncovered.

1 This means includes a valve lever lock for each container to prevent movement of the valve 25 to an on position, and which lock is released or rendered ineffective by the bringing of the rod, the upward movement of said rod being lim.--

ited by the engagement of a stop shoulder 11 on V the rod with the lower end of the guide I5. With the rod II in its upper position the lever H is in the dotted line position shown in Fig. 5.whlch brings its outer end into the path of a projection 18 on the valve turning lever 28, so that the valve cannot be turned in the direction of the lowered .lever 1| until that lever is raised out of the way, and this raising of the lever takes placeautomatically through the action of the movement of the coverto a locked position since the cover, more particularlythe latch control cover 54, has a pair of spaced lugs 19 on its outer part preferably at the back, one of these lugs engageable with the rod 14 for one container and the other with the other. Thus in an apparatus using two containers and one cover the operator can only operate the hydraulic pressure controlling valve in' 'such a sequence as not to cause damage to the uncovered container. The various parts of the cover and the container are made of metal best suited for the service which they have to stand. I desire it to be understood that this inven- 1 tion is not to be limited to any particular form or arrangement of parts except in so far as such limitations, are included in the claims. What I claim as my invention is: 1. In a device of the class described, the combination of a container having an open end and a trough at said open end, a flexible bag clamped at its open end to the open end at said container and extending within the same, means for admitting pressure fluid between said container and bag, a removable apertured cover for said container, locking means carried by the cover for securing said cover to saidcontainer. and control means for said locking means movable relative to said cover and including a part acting as a supplementary cover to direct the overflow of fluid from said apertured cover into said trough."

2. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of a plurality of like containers having open ends and arranged in spaced relation, a flexible bag clamped to the open end of each container and extending within the same, means for admitting pressure fluid between each container and its bag including a common supply and drain pipe and a valve controlling the passage of fluid to either container respectively, a removable cover for all of said containers, means carried by the cover for locking said cover to any one of said containers. and means controlled by the movement of the cover for preventing the operation of said valve to supply pressure fluid except only to the containerthen closed by said cover. g

3. In a device of the class described, the combination of a container having an open'encl, a removable cover for said container, -a plurality of latches pivotally mounted on said cover and movable to locking engagement with adjoining peripheral edges of said container and cover, a ring member movable substantially lengthwise of said latches to engage them to hold them 4. In a device of the class described, the combination of a container having an open end, a removable cover for said-container, a plurality of latches pivotally mounted on said cover and gravity actuated to locking engagement with adjoining peripheral edges of said container and cover, a ring member movable, substantially lengthwise of said latches to a position to hold said latches in their position of locking engagement and also movable substantially lengthwise of said latches to engage with a part of said I latches to positively release the same from looking engagement with said container, and means carried by the cover for controlling said ring member.

5. ha device of the class described, the combination of a container having an open end, a

removable cover for said container, a plurality of latches pivotally mounted on said cover and normally biased to locking engagement with adjoining peripheral edges of said container and cover, and a ring member movable substantially lengthwise of said latches to a position to hold said latches in their position of locking engagement.

6. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of a container having an open end, a removable cover for said container, a counterweighted extensible support for said cover, a plurality of latches pivotally mounted on said cover and normally biased to locking engagement with adjoining peripheral edges of said container and cover, a ring member movable to a position to hold said latches in their position of cover to said container, operator controlled means for controlling said locking means, means for suspending said cover in raised position above said container, a lever having a lost motion connection with said suspending means for raising said cover, and a lock release lever connected with'said suspending means and said first-named lever and operable through said first named lever to move the controlling means for said locking means to a lock release position.'

8. In an apparatus of the character described,

the combination of a container having an open lever and operable to move the controlling means in their locked position and move them to release position, and means for controlling said ring member.

forsaid locking means to a lock, release position, and means for locking said levers together when said lockin means are released. 1

9. In an apparatus oi. the character described, the combination of a container having an open end, a removable cover tor said container, a plurality 0t latches plvotallymounted on said cover and normally biased to locking engagement with adjoining peripheral edges of said container and cover, a ring member movable to a position to hold said latches in their position of locking engagement and into a. position to positively release ,said latches from their locked position, means for supporting said cover, a lever connected to said ring for moving said supporting means to raise said cover, and control means for said ring including a manually controlled lever carried by said supporting means and operatively connected to said ring through said first named lever. I

10. The combination with a pair of receptacles and a .cover common to both receptacles, of means for shifting said cover from one receptacle to the other comprising a rotatable standard disposed in a plane between the receptacles, a counterweight carried by said standard, a, cable operably connecting said counterweight with said cover, and a lever fulcrumed on said standard and operably connected with the cover for raising the cover and turning the standard.

11. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of a container having an open end, aremovable cover for said container, locking means carried by the cover for securing said cover to said container, a rotatable standard, manually controlled means for raising and lowering said cover including means for suspending the cover from said standard and including a cover counterweight, operator controlled means for controlling said locking means, the means for raising and lowering said cover including a. lever having a lost motion connection with said cover and forming a part of the control for said locking means.

THOMAS S. WATSON. 

